Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three

I waited until I had finished Part 3 before rating and reviewing because it is folly to view these as three separate movies rather than as a series.

Had just a little more care been taken, I believe this trilogy would have been cinema-worthy. The artwork looks like Archer, the pacing is terrible; Part 1, a story where the Flash races through alternate dimensions, should have crackled with energy. Instead, it has gaps of leaden silence, where stilled cells linger more than a beat too long. There are serious continuity issues, where it is impossible to tell where characters physically are in the 'multiverse', and I kept thinking I had missed a section of storyline.

It is interesting what DC have tried to do, here (even for the third time) using a storyline to repair what was a greedy boardroom decision, and the mature, subdued tone is appropriate. Additionally, the voice cast are fantastic, and this is the final chance to hear the Conroy/Hamill partnership. But, if this was such a big deal for the DCAMU, an extra three months of work would have raised it from an oddity to an epic.

Movie Rating System - Rewatchability:

10 - Instant Replay: This is the kind of movie I'd gladly watch again soon. It might not be a masterpiece, but it's entertaining and holds up well, making it worth revisiting.

7 - Hold For Later: It's a solid film that I'd enjoy rewatching someday, though not right away. It's enjoyable and stands the test of time, even if it's not groundbreaking.

4 - One and Done: This could be an amazing movie, but it's best experienced just once. Its impact might come from surprises or emotional weight that don't hold up on repeat viewings, so I'm fine leaving it as that single experience.

1 - Regret Watching: This one I wish I hadn't watched. Once was too much, give me a Neuralyzer stat!

For me, a "10" isn't just about being a brilliant movie-it's about having that lasting appeal. Some films are incredible for a single viewing, but I wouldn't call them "the best" if I never want to watch them again.

Review: Nothing amazing by any stretch, and some nice nods near the end, R. I. P. Kevin Conroy, it tied up nicely for a trilogy, a series of films I'm sure would be cool for the younger audiences to enjoy.

I quite like the art style, a nice middle ground of 3D and 2D without it being too blatent either like a cellshading effect you'd get from the likes of the Borderlands games or Telltale for that matter.

Still this movie was a fun time, like my previous reviews on the trilogy, I'm perfectly happy never watching this again, and that would usually make it a 4/10, but since I may someday have kids or see it with my nephews, I'm not against seeing it again, making it a 7.

This is a step up from Part Two for sure, but it runs out of steam quickly. All the fun stuff about different timelines crashing together is woefully short and though we finally get our long-overdue peek into the multiverse everyone was waiting for, that, too, is kept to an unfortunate minimum.

A lot of the fun of Multiverse stories is watching different versions of the same character rub elbows with each other and that's such a depressing footnote across this entire movie series. Though we might see multiple versions of Aquaman, or see two Supermen working together, there's basically no commentary to or about each other.

Once you get past the opening with World War 2 soldiers fighting dinosaurs in Metropolis, the whole thing turns in to an unfun slog of talking heads finally trying to solve the mystery of what's really going on. It just takes, like, a full four hours for them to finally reach that point.

This could be worse, I guess. I did not hate it. But I remain pretty underwhelmed regardless.

It amazes me how Jeff Wamester still keeps his job as a director for DC animation department at WB. For many years he made abysmal animation effort for the brand so much that it feels like a new normal. WB DC animation used be regarded in such a high manner it saddens to see such works.

Crisis on Infinite Earths was a really weird, but nonetheless important and culturally significant event for comic books history. It never seemed like an easy job to transfer it in animation or live action medium. So for it to succeed it had to at least be gorgeously animated and story wise fulfil the main themes of comics narrative.

But what we got here is a lazy, non coherent work, which removes the most interesting parts of the story and fills in the gaps with terrible animation sequences, a lot of exposition and a bunch of parts that could've been cut out altogether. At the end we get a product that is so boring, that I've fallen asleep a couple of times and had to rewind it.

I was never a really big fan of the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, but I did respect the original authors and how they managed to fill in so much in one story. Having that material should've helped to at least make a coherent story for animation, but what we got is a cheap spit to the face of animation industry, especially for those animators who previously were so successful and hard working in DC department. It's just a shame that after all this time fans got to see the worst kind of imagination of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

I'm not versed in the source material at all outside of common knowledge for fans of the shared universe, so my enjoyment of this film is for the film itself. That, and the Tomorrowverse overall. Were I an avid reader of the comics and knew Crisis well, it would not surprise me to find myself disliking this far more.

But as a trilogy, this conclusion really wasn't so bad. It was greatly helped by brief visits to well-loved shows in the past, all in its original art style no less. The nostalgia train hit me so hard I couldn't help but instantly like this film a little more the second it came on screen. This movie also had some decent moments unrelated to old heavy hitters. While it wasn't the best of the franchise, I still enjoyed it for what it is.

However, the main issue with these recent films is that hardly any of them are complete stories by themselves. It's all tied to other entries that came before it. If this only happened for the trilogy I wouldn't judge so harshly, since parts 1, 2 and 3 are literally in the title. But we also saw this for films that preceded it, transforming these into episodes of the same story and not separate, though inter-connected movies. This happens when there's too much crossover which blurs the entire arc into one amalgamation. Instead of cool references here and there where the audience can get excited at recognizing something for having seen previous installments, thorough knowledge of the continuity is expected of the viewer which easily becomes drag when seemingly the same story has been occurring for a long, long time. Perhaps this was intentional due to it being infinite earths and all. If so, the intent is appreciated, but left wanting in practice. Or maybe their assumed audience are all DC diehards, in which case this isn't great storytelling.

It also has to be mentioned that some scenes are poorly done. It's hard to describe but the quality throughout the trilogy, as well as many of the films before it is noticeably inconsistent. You've got moments that are excellent while others are so low-effort it's amazing they're in the same movie. Don't know what's happening in the animation studio but it seriously affects the end result in a negative way.

I'm a DC fan. These characters are among my favorites in any franchise. This means I'll continue to watch whatever DC puts out. Having said that, Tomorrowverse was disappointing overall. Too much reliance on previous entries aside, with very few exceptions it wasn't until this film that our heroes started feeling like the people we know and love. Then, suddenly, it's over. Quite a bittersweet send-off. There's something missing, but by this point I'm somewhat glad it's done.